JANE AUSTEN (1775 – 1817)
Life
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Jane Austen, one of the best-known and best-loved English novelists, was the sixth of sever
children born to Steventon in Hampshire in 1775.
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She had a happy childhood, receiving her first education from her father George, who was also a
teacher in Oxford.
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Her life was notable for its lack of events; she didn’t marry, although she had several suitors.
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She died of Addison disease in 1817, at the age of forty-two.
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There were remarkably few woman writers until Jane Austen, and many would argue that she is
the greatest woman writer of all time.
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Though she lived in the Romantic period, she was not influenced by Romantic theories.
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She preferred to describe probable situations and characters drawn from English daily life, resuming
the tradition of the Novel of Manners.
Novels
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Sense and Sensibility, written in 1797 – 1798, but published in 1811, is the story of fortune
and love affair of a family whose father dies and leaves everything to his son and nothing to
his daughter.
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Pride and Prejudice, written around 1797, revised in 1809, published in 1813.
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Northanger Abbey, written in 1798 – 1799, sold to a publisher in 1803; Gothic.
Pride and Prejudice
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It could probably be considered as her masterpiece.
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It’s a Novel of Manners.
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It was first published in 1813.
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The original title was ‘First Impression’.
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Elizabeth is the principal character.
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Mr Darcy the aristocratic, proud man.
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Irony is method of presentation, organization, analysis and judgement.
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Through the use of dialogues, she introduced, sometimes, the omniscient narrator.
Pride and Prejudice
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Point of view: The novel is told from Elizabeth’s point of view.
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Tense: Past tense
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Themes: love; reputation, class
It’s a Novel of Manners.
•
The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with and focus on the customs, values and
mindset of a particular class or group of people who are situated in a specific historical
context.
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The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18° century.
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The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual aspirations or desires and the
accepted social codes of behaviour. There is a vital relationship between manners, social
behaviour and character. Physical appearances are overall less emphasized while manners and
social behaviour remain the particular interests in the novel.
Themes
• LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Sometimes it seems as if marriage, especially if you’re single, is the most important thing in life.
The book is about romance, but Austen provides examples of different kinds of marriage that go
some way to showing that life and relationships can be complicated.
Themes
• REPUTATION
Most of the characters are deeply concerned abour their ‘reputation’, how others see them and
their standing in society.
Themes
• LOVE
There are a lot of marriages, but not much love to go around. That’s because most marriage are
based either on economic necessity or attraction.
Of the entire Bennet family, only Jane and Elizabeth are capable of true romatic love.
• FAMILY
Austen portays the family unit as primarily responsible for the intellectual and moral education of
children.
• WOMEN
Austen is certainly critical of the gender injustices present in 19° century English society,
particularly as perpetrated by the institution of marriage. In Pride and Prejudice, many women
(such as Charlotte) must marry solely for the sake of financial security. In her portrayal of
Elizabeth, Austen shown that women are just as intelligent and capable as their male conterparts.
Austen herself went against convention by remaining single and earning a living through her novels. In
her personal letter, Austen advised friends only to marry for love. In the novel, Elizabeth’s happy ending
reveals Austen’s beliefs that woman has the right to remain independet until she meets the right man (if
she meets him).
Themes
• WEALTH
Money makes the world go round, especially if you’re a young woman trying to get married in
Regency England.
The five Bennet daughters have almost no money, which means no way to entice men to marry
them and no way to support themselves after their father dies and their house is handed over to
Mr. Collins.
Characters in ‘Pride and Prejudice’
Mr. Bennet, di Longbourne-house, nell'Hertfordshire, the father;
Mrs. [Gardiner] Bennet, Mr. Bennet‘s wife;
Jane Bennet 22 years old, who married Bingley;
Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennet 20 years old, who married Mr. Darcy;
Mary Bennet 18/19 years old;
Catherine (Kitty) Bennet 17 years old;
Lydia Bennet 15 years old, who married George Wickham.
Characters in ‘Pride and Prejudice’
Charles Bingley 22 years old, who married Jane Bennet;
Fitzwilliam Darcy, di Pemberley; 28 years old, who married Elizabeth Bennet
The widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh,.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Discuss the importance
of social class in the
novel, especially as it
impacts the relationship
between Elizabeth and
Darcy.
Discuss the relationship
between Mrs. Bennet and
her children, especially
Elizabeth and Lydia.
Compare and contrast
the Bingley – Darcy
relationship with the
Jane
–
Elizabeth
relationship.